Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/212

272 sooner than we wish, as matters are now moving,) I shall see thee, and we shall shake hands as a token of truth and affection. For your verses I return you thanks, which shall be doubly increased, if you will frequently favour me with your letters, in which I perceive evident marks of your wonted elegance and erudition.—Leyden, the 20th March, 1588."

Johnston appears to have early embraced the doctrines of the presbyterian church of Scotland, and to have retained them with the characteristic firmness of the body. He was the intimate friend of its accomplished supporter Andrew Melville, whose influence probably procured him the appointment to the professorship of divinity in the new college of St Andrews, as successor to John Robertson, an advancement which he obtained previously to the year 1594, as he is discovered, under the term "maister in the new college," to have been elected one of the elders of St Andrews, on the 28th November, 1593. Johnston was a useful assistant to his illustrious friend, in the opposition to the harassing efforts of king James to introduce episcopacy. He must have been included in the interdict of the visitation of the university commission, by which the professors of theology and philosophy, not being pastors of the church, were prohibited from sitting in church courts, except through an election regulated by the council of the visitation: and in the General Assembly which met at Dundee in 1598, whither both had resorted to oppose the too great tenderness of James for the church, in proposing to admit its representation in parliament, Melville and Johnston were charged to quit the city, with the usual formality of the pain of rebellion in case of refusal. In 1603, these friends again appear acting in concert, in a correspondence with Du Plessis, on the subject of the synod of Gap in France having censured certain peculiar opinions on the doctrine of justification. "They did not presume to judge of the justice of the synod of Gap, but begged leave to express their fears that strong measures would inflame the minds of the disputants, and that a farther agitation of the question might breed a dissension very injurious to the interests of the evangelical churches. It appeared to them that both parties held the protestant doctrine of justification, and only differed a little in their mode of explaining it. They, therefore, in the name of their brethren, entreated Du Plessis to employ the authority which his piety, prudence, learned writings, and illustrious services in the cause of Chris- tianity had given him in the Gallican church, to bring about an amicable adjustment of the controversy." Without inquiring into the minutia of the controversy, the knowledge that it was a theological one is sufficient to make us appreciate the advice as exceedingly sound ; and we have the satisfaction to know, as a rare instance, that it produced the desired effect. During the previous year Johnston had published at Amsterdam his first complete poetical